Charles Grakley and the Living Tree
by Maxameano
Summary: Charles Grakley is a young wizard who hopes to join his sister at Hogwarts the fall, but as he is about to learn not all people hope for can come true. Takes place shortly after the nineteen years later, rated M for potential violence and language. Please critique and review as this is my first fanfic. More to come depending on what you guys think.


**Chapter 1: A Pleasant Surprise**

Charles woke up to the sound of someone banging on his door. He quickly rubbed his eyes to clear the sleep out of his eyes and looked around his room. It was still dark outside so it must be late, he turned to his alarm clock, a golden ball the size of a tennis ball with tiny wings clearly displayed the time to be 5:00 am. It was quite cold in his room so he pulled a jumper on over his pajamas and wondered if he imagined the sound at his door when all of a sudden he heard a voice coming from the other side of the door. "Charlie? Are you awake?"

Charlie immediately recognized the voice and went to answer the door. On the other side of the door was his sister, a girl about 13 years old, with long dark brown hair. He scowled at her "It's five in the morning Morgan, what are you doing here?" he said, stifling a yawn.

"Don't tell me you forgot, we're taking the train to Diagon Alley this morning, I was trying to make sure you were up on time." She replied with a shrug.

It came back to Charles now, today was his sisters 13th birthday and they were going in to London with their parents not only to celebrate but also to start shopping for school. She was about to enter her third year in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Charles had hoped to join her this year, seeing as how he turned eleven in September but when the owl delivered her letter from Hogwarts there had not been one for him. At first he had assumed that maybe they sent out letters to the returning students first but that was almost a month ago and there was still no sign that the people at Hogwarts even knew Charles existed, let alone that he was wizard. Which worried Charles even more, the more he thought about the more he thought he failed some sort of test and wouldn't be allowed at Hogwarts. He even in recent months started to believe that maybe he was a squib… After all every time something magical happened anywhere near enough to him his sister always claimed the credit/blame.

This however, was not the time to think about these things, for even if he was a squib Diagon Alley was still his favorite place that he had ever been to. He quickly got dressed and immediately raced downstairs to find his family waiting for him. They are clambered into the taxi that was waiting to take them to the train station. Along the way Charles got to thinking about his predicament again, as he always did when he was left to his own devices. He was so wrapped up in his own devices that he didn't notice the fact the taxi was hovering until he looked out the window to see that they were a whole 10 inches off the ground, but just as quickly as he had noticed they dropped and hit the ground quite hard. "Sorry" chimed Morgan "I was practicing hovering charms. I didn't mean to hit the whole taxi."

"Morgan, no more charms until we get to the Leaky Cauldron" said her mother.

"I'd prefer it if she left practicing spells altogether until she got back to Hogwarts." Whispered Charles's father just quietly enough that only Charles could hear. Charles assumed this was supposed to cheer him up a little bit, but the thought of his sister going to Hogwarts without him just made him sadder.

Before he knew it they had pulled into the station and were hopping onto the train to head into London. His family lived outside of London, but had taken the train in enough times to know that it was a three hour train ride into London. More importantly, it was just enough time to take a nap.

What felt like only seconds later he was being shaken awake by Morgan. He climbed out of the station and was bombarded with the smells of London. Here in the city all he could smell was burning gasoline mixed with sewage. But more importantly, he could see at the end of the street the dilapidated bar that marked the entrance into Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron.

His family walked straight through the bar, stopping only to say hello to the barman Tom, and passed into the alley behind it. Diagon Alley was by far the most wonderful place Charles had ever seen, tall slanted building on either side of it, each with elaborate signs. There was Olivander's Wand Shop, where every young witch or wizard went to get their wand, as well as stores for buying all the supplies you could ever need at school, but most importantly (in Charles' eyes at least) was the bright and colorful shop at the end of the street, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Charles looked back towards his dad who nodded knowingly and Charles raced off down the street to the store. He knew his parents would be able to find him here once they were done shopping for Morgan so he wasn't worried about where they went.

"Charlie!" called the man behind the counter. Charles knew who it was before even turning towards the voice.

"George, how are you today?" replied Charles, smiling up at the man he knew quite well.

"I am doing quite well as always my boy. Although I must admit I am quite surprised to see you in here. I know you are turning eleven soon, shouldn't you be out shopping for supplies for Hogwarts?" asked George.

At this Charles's smile disappeared. He looked back up at George wondering if he should share the fears he hadn't told anyone yet. "No, I haven't gotten any letter from Hogwarts. That with the fact that I haven't shown any signs of magical ability yet I think I might be a... squib." Now George's smile was gone too, replaced by a scowl.

"Terrible word that is, created by the same people as Mudblood, where'd you hear a word like that?"

"My sister Morgan told me about it, apparently the term came up in her History of Magic course." Replied Charles a little sheepishly, as if not realizing that he had said a bad word.

"Well whatever the cause you need not fear my boy, I feel I may have just the thing to prove you wrong." With that George pulled a ring out from underneath his counter, it was a very simple ring, a silver band with a small black stone in the top of it. "If a muggle were to put this ring on, nothing about it would change, however whenever anyone with magical ability put it on their finger the stone turns white."

Almost as if to prove his point George placed the ring on his finger and immediately the stone started to glow a pale white. "I made while messing around with some charms, the brighter it glows the more powerful the wizard who is wearing it. I haven't quite figured out how to market it in a joke shop, but it should do the trick for you." And with that George handed the ring to Charles.

The stone, which was back to black, started to shift towards white when Charles placed it on his finger immediately stopped at a cloudy grey. "What does that mean?"

"I am not entirely sure Charlie, probably means your magic but haven't been trained enough to figure out how strong." Said George, clearly not very sure of himself. "Of course it could just mean you're a half a squib… I guess"

Charles was angry, angry at Hogwarts for not accepting him, angry at himself for not knowing what he was, but most of all he was angry at the stupid ring for not being able to give him the answers. He tried to push all of his will into the ring as if he could trick it into telling him he was magic, when all of a sudden the stone shattered into hundreds of pieces which flew all over the room. At that exact moment his father walked into the store. "Charlie we were going to get some ice cream, do you want to join…" and then he paused looking around the room at the destruction the ring had caused. "What the bloody heck happened in here. It's never been clean but this is a bit much, don't you think George?"

Charles looked around the room, the shelves were torn, many bottles that once held potions were now cracked and leaking their respective liquids into one big bubbling liquid in the center of the room. "I am so sorry Mr. Weasley I can help fix it or pay you back…"

"Not to worry Charlie, that was the most fun I've had in ages. In fact you've given me an idea for a new product that will surely pay for the damages. Exploding Jewelry." He sounded almost mystified by the idea clearly lost in thought about how he could market it to students. "Now run along Charlie and get some ice cream, I've got to work on making this repeatable… and perhaps less lethal" he added with another look around the room.

Charlie and his father walked out of the shop and he could already see his sister with all her shopping bags lined up around her and with four ice creams at the table. Charles sat at the table with the intention of eating his ice cream but the moment he picked up his spoon a large brown owl landed right in his ice cream.


End file.
